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Comment: Brenda Power: Travellers should not be above the law

Last week, a couple of tabloid newspapers reported the case of an unfortunate career criminal in Co Kerry who hanged himself on his jumper while attempting a break-in. One paper quoted a local remarking that he had been dubbed “the bungling burglar”, a phrase more likely to be the work of a tabloid hack than the spontaneous coinage of a rural wag.

In passing, the articles mentioned that the man — who was clearly less than successful in his chosen career since he’d spent most of his life in prison for similar offences — had left behind a girlfriend and children.

The tone of the reports, replicated throughout much of the coverage of the hapless man’s fate, was that he was the author of his own misfortune, and no great loss to society.

Even if his death has not cast much of a cloud over the local community this weekend, at least